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[quote=Anonymous]I not only competed in both debate and forensics in hs, I have worked as a coach. Most students don't do one or the other, they do both. Debate season is in the fall, forensics is in the spring. There is a lot of travel for tournaments involved, so it could clash with a sports schedule, but I know there are folks who do both. But if there is a heavy practice/competition schedule for a varsity sport, that could potentially conflict and be a reason to do only one -- debate or forensics. If you play a spring sport, you could do debate. Or if you play a fall sport, just forensics.

Debate is what you think of when you think of debate -- in case debate policy is debated (it's called a "resolution") by teams. There is a very broad resolution for the year, and students research the heck out of it. At tournaments one team argues for a certain policy and then the other team refutes the other team's position. I believe this year's resolution is: "Resolved: That the federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the US by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding social security, or providing a basic income." There is also Lincoln/Douglas style debate, where debaters argue one-on-one instead of in teams, again -- for or against a resolution. I believe this year's LD debate resolution is: "The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region."

You end up debating both sides of the resolution, so it's a great way for kids to learn that there aren't easy answer to complex problems and that competing positions can both have merit.

Forensics is much broader than that. Forensics is also team-style competitive public speaking, but there are many public speaking roles to choose to compete in. There are roles that look very much like debate, like extemporaneous speaking where you don't know what you will be speaking on until you enter the room and are provided with 3 current events to choose from and you make an argument with regard one of those topics on the fly. But there are also competition categories that are more creative, like dramatic interpretation, which is basically acting -- you do a monologue from a play or movie.

Debate and Forensics are great opportunities for students to gain confidence, polish public speaking, and learn critical thinking skills. The high school debate partner I made it to the semi-final round at state with eventually became a lawyer and so did I, lol. We are still arguing, it seems. [/quote]

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